Sally has an amazingly good voice for a robot. She's also gorgeous and plays the piano like a virtuoso.

As she sang "It had to be You," I was mesmerized by her sweet smoky voice and the way she tilted her blonde page boy as she moved her perfectly manicured fingers across the tinkling keys.

She has a repertoire of about 10 songs, my tour guide Lauren Wood Weaver told me during a recent visit to Sally Corp., The American Dark Ride Co., which is owned by her father, John Wood. I toured the vast building, where fantasy figures are created and spring to life with the push of a button, while interviewing Wood for a Jacksonville Business Journal story about his company.

"We can program her for even more songs," Weaver said. "You can see how she would be popular in a hotel lobby or bar."

Sally was the first character the company created, and although her appearance has changed through the years, she is still on hand to greet visitors. She sits at a piano in the corner of a dark ride game room, where visitors can experience what the rides are all about.

The dark ride exhibit is a black light scene of a scary graveyard filled with moveable ghosts, giant spiders, and all kinds of creepy critters - as well as the cartoon character Scooby Doo. You and a partner stand at a console and shoot laser guns at lighted targets around the scene.

Tombstones fall down. Ghosts pop up. Spiders drop from the ceiling. A bucket, hanging from a scary tree, swings back and forth. Scooby Doo comes out from behind a rock and says, "Scooby Dooby Doo."

Sound effects and music are important aspects of the dark rides the company invents for theme parks around the world. The folks that work at Sally not only create the characters for the rides, as well as stand alone characters such as Sally. They also write all the scripts, and do the sound tracks as well, Weaver said.

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